ALL NOVEL chapter 397: Beyond Modern
"Your Honor, I am a red card holder; can I receive a loan worth 1 trillion RM?" asked Mike.
"No," replied Master Green, outright rejecting him.
Mike took out his red card and flashed it in front of Master Green. "Look, red card holder here! At least show a little respect!" He had grown accustomed to being treated with respect due to his cardholder status.
Master Green took something out and flashed it in front of Mike. "Here, I have a diamond card, which is two levels higher than a red card. How about you show me some respect?"
Mike looked at the diamond card; it was literally made of diamond with a blue hue. The diamond didn’t look ordinary; it was definitely at least a rank 9 diamond, maybe even quasi-rank 10.
"Your Honor, I didn’t know you were a diamond cardholder! Now, as a fellow cardholder, can you give me a little loan?" Mike shamelessly asked again.
"Who are you again?" Master Green asked. Mike hadn’t even introduced himself and went straight to asking for a loan, so it was natural that Master Green didn’t know who he was.
"I am Mike. Lord Silver has met me before. Back then, I received a loan of 30 billion, which I have already paid back," he explained.
Master Green thought for a moment and then said, "I would give you a 1 trillion loan only if you join my department."
Mike considered this for a moment and then asked, "What are the conditions?"
"You have to complete a task for the department every 10 years," Master Green replied.
"That’s it?" Mike asked.
"Yeah," said Master Green.
"Well, I would like to join your department," Mike formally requested.
"Great, I officially admit you to the department. Now, as your first task, I appoint you as an agent of the Transportation Agency. You are to stay in that role for two years. Your reward at the end depends on your performance, but because this task is mandatory, your reward will be reduced by 50%," said Master Green.
"What is the Transportation Agency?" asked Mike.
"The Transportation Agency's main job is delivering supplies to settlements that activate their disaster insurance plan. The requested supplies must be delivered on time and without damage. Recently, there has been a vacancy, and I have been looking for a martial saint. You came just in time," said Master Green.
The forests are vast and dangerous; each ship must have at least one martial domain protector. There are countless settlements across the southern continent, and every day, at least thousands of tribes activate their disaster insurance and ask for emergency supplies. The total number of member settlements of the disaster insurance plan is in the billions.
The airships used by the Transportation Agency are extremely quick; they can usually transport supplies anywhere on the continent in less than a day. In total, there are no more than 500 martial arts masters of the martial domain and above realms in the agency; most of them are full-time, working nearly 24/7. The pay is not bad, and after working for a few centuries, they can use their money to buy martial arts resources to break through.
From time to time, some full-time martial artists of the Transportation Department may quit or take time off for various reasons. The insurance delivery schedule is already very tight; even the vacancy of one martial arts master can cause a lot of delays. Disaster insurance relief is time-sensitive, so to prevent any delays, the agency also contracts many freelance martial arts masters who can be hired as part-timers.
In addition to acting as guardians to airships delivering disaster supplies, the martial arts masters also protect insurance inspectors sent to faraway villages and settlements. In general, their job is to act as bodyguards, whether for the airship or the insurance agents.
The Insurance Department prefers to hire local insurance agents so that it wouldn’t be forced to send agents all over the world from the capital. However, it still lacks agents in more than half of all settlements on the continent.
"Two years? Is serving in the Transportation Agency for two years really just one task?" Mike protested. Master Green was taking advantage of him.
"Yes, it is. The rulebook states that the maximum time for a mandatory task is two years. Anything over the two-year deadline would be considered voluntary and paid accordingly," said Master Green.
"Which rulebook?" Mike asked.
Master Green took out a book from the bookshelves behind him and gave it to Mike.
"Master Green, when I asked you about the rules, you only mentioned having to do one task; you didn’t tell me about any of these conditions, and certainly not about the rulebook!" Mike said while opening the thick book.
"The rulebook outlines the conditions and terms of the mandatory task, as well as the method of calculating the reward," explained Master Green.
With his speed, Mike finished reading the book in a few seconds.
"No matter what the rulebook says, working for two years and guarding hundreds of airships is definitely not just one task," Mike said, closing the book. Overall, the rulebook was fair; the reward was calculated reasonably, and the task success rate and conditions were acceptable. The only nonsensical part is the two-year condition.
"This is how it is; those are the rules. You can still quit if you don’t like it; I won’t take it personally," said Master Green.
Mike thought for a moment and decided against it; he really needed the money.
"What about the loan?" Mike asked. The 1 trillion loan would really help a lot.
"Here you go, I’ve transferred the money into your red card," said Master Green. The red card also acts as a bank account, even giving an interest of 0.1% on the money each year.
The currency, RM, is exceptionally stable; there is no inflation to speak of. A lot of bank accounts even have negative interest rates; therefore, an interest rate of 0.1% is actually very good.
The reason for such stable currency is that the central bank has fixed prices for valuable metals, water, food, and oxygen, meaning that one can buy those commodities directly from the central bank at the same prices in endless quantities.
Such a fixed and stable currency means people usually keep their money in RM and won’t buy houses or valuable metals to protect their wealth against inflation. This has good and bad sides.
The good part is that it leads to a better quality of life, and the bad side is that it makes many jobs, such as food production, unsustainable. After all, the government sells infinite amounts of meat, rice, wheat, and all kinds of agricultural products; competing with the government is simply impossible.
The government's supplies are endless, most likely relying on some magic to artificially produce them.
"The daily payments are 5,000,000 RM, for 600 years," Master Green said.
Mike calculated it and nodded; the interest was very low.
"Thanks!" Mike nodded to Master Green; it went easier than he thought.
"You want to buy martial arts resources, right? Here you go." Master Green took out a ring with a big diamond on it and handed it to Mike.
Mike took the ring and looked into it; he quickly located the pills and elixirs he needed and bought them in mass quantities. After spending all of that 1 trillion, he barely had enough to reach the martial god stage.
"It was an honor to meet you!" Mike smiled and, after bidding his farewell, left the room.
…
The income for transferring disaster supplies is 1 million per trip, meaning Mike can at most earn 365 million a year, even if he works every day without any rest. If the supplies are delivered perfectly on time and without damage, he would get an extra 100k. If the supplies are delayed or damaged, his pay would decrease accordingly.
On each airship, two people are boarded: one is the martial arts master, who guards the ship; the second is an insurance agent, whose job is to assess the disaster and ensure no fraud is going on. Training insurance agents is no easy task; it takes years and a lot of training for them to be equipped with the skills to detect all kinds of fraud that can occur in less than a day. There is no need for a pilot, as the airships all work within a centralized artificial intelligence network.
As soon as Mike entered the agency, they quickly took him to an airship that was ready to fly; it looked like they were in a hurry to deliver the supplies.
The airship was very tiny; it was no longer than 6 meters long. It only had space for two people and absolutely no space for carrying luggage.
"Why are they calling this an airship? This is clearly a fighter jet!" Mike wondered. It was a miniature version of the fighter jets that many modern civilizations use; it also had small missiles on the edges of its wings.
"This thing works on mortal fuel, which is probably why the transport costs are so low," he thought. If they were to transport everything using airships powered by magic, it would cost far more than the 1 million they pay their martial arts masters.
Airships are much safer and have their own magic-driven defensive mechanism, but actually running them would cost magic crystals.
"They use space rings for transporting the disaster supplies, so they don’t need space for luggage. Also, they can’t use teleportation because it costs even more than real airships," he thought.
As he was thinking, an old woman with long white hair tied up behind her head walked with quick steps and boarded the 'airship.'
"Hello?" Mike called out, astonished that the old woman treated him as a ghost.
"You're new, right? Our income depends on how many trips we can work, so whether we greet each other or insult each other, we would do it after we board the airship. So please, come sit down; we can talk about anything you want after the airship flies," said the old woman.
Mike nodded, also walking to the 'airship' and sitting down. The door immediately closed, and the plane started moving up vertically. The jet engines ignited, and the plane shot forward.
The old woman fastened her seatbelt and also wore special clothing. During the acceleration, one would experience many times normal gravity, so to prevent fainting, special clothing is required.
Mike, however, only fastened his seatbelt. There was no need for him to wear special clothes; as a martial saint, his body was mighty. Even if the plane crashed, he would not be harmed.
After a few minutes, the 'airship' finally stopped accelerating. Mike was quite astonished at the speed; he calculated it and realized it was moving at around 20,000 kilometers per hour, which was quite unbelievable to him. The technology of this 'airship' was much more advanced than other fighter jets in modern civilizations. It moved at a much higher altitude, where there was less air resistance.
"What kind of fuel can provide this much energy?" Mike thought. The jet was using mortal energy; he could feel that much, but he had no idea what kind of mortal fuel could provide such immense energy.
"Could it be nuclear? A jet directly working with nuclear energy?" Mike closed his eyes and nodded to himself.
"This is beyond modern civilization; only advanced civilizations can directly use nuclear power on such a tiny jet," he thought; after completely unlocking the big demon's memory, he knew a lot more about the difference between modern and advanced civilizations.